To take away the power of those she said are trying to get money out of her, Cummings boldly posted the photo.
Whitney Cummings took to Twitter early Monday morning claiming that someone is trying to blackmail her over a semi-nude photo she inadvertently posted to her Instagram story months ago.
"In April I accidentally posted an insta story that showed nipple. Once I realized, I deleted," Cummings tweeted. "The people who took screen grabs are trying to get money from me, some said they have offers to sell them, some are asking for money to not post the photo."
The 36-year-old stand-up comic then explained that she wasn't going to let those trying to extort her have any power over her. She shared the semi-nude snapshot herself, along with a screen grab of one DM she received, showing the pic along with the question, "How much would it cost to not share this photo?"
"They all must think I’m way more famous than I am, but they also must think I’m way more easily intimidated than I am," she added. "If anyone is gonna make money or likes off my nipple, it’s gonna be me. So here it all is, you foolish dorks."
She later explained why she decided to post the photo, and how much time and effort female celebrities have to waste dealing with awful blackmailers.
"When a woman in the public eye is extorted, we have to spend time, money and energy dealing with it, hiring lawyers and security experts, and living with a pit in our stomach about when and how we will be humiliated," Y’all can have my nipple, but not my time or money anymore.
While she could easily fire back by blasting the usernames of those trying to get money out her, Cummings said she didn't feel like publicly shaming anyone at this time.
"I'm not posting the names of the people trying to extort me because some of them might be dumb kids," she wrote. "I wouldn't want the stupid ideas I had when I was a teenager to follow me around forever or else every time someone Googled me, they'd see me shoplifting a NO FEAR t-shirt."
However, the comedian then claimed that the threats had escalated, but she wasn't changing her stance on her nude photos possibly being leaked.
"Now I'm getting threatened with 'we have access to your iCloud.' I'll be honest, I stand by most of my nudes," Cummings tweeted. "Frankly I'm way more embarrassed by all the inspirational quotes I've screen grabbed."
ET has reached out to Cummings for comment.
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